Book of the Promises and Predictions of God 3.31–4.3

Of Christ’s ascension into heaven, and of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A promise fulfilled. The prophet David says: “He ascended on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men.” Again he says: “He mounted on the cherubim and flew; he flew on the wings of the winds.” And again: “The taking up is the Lord’s, and of the Holy One of Israel, our King.” Again he says: “Send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” The evangelists confirm this, he himself saying in Mark: “These signs will follow those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues.” And elsewhere: “I,” he says, “will send you the promise of my Father; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” And after he had said this, he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. The Acts of the Apostles testify: “A cloud,” it says, “took him up, and he was lifted up from the disciples. And as they were gazing while he went into heaven, two men stood by them in white, who also said: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven.” And again: “On the day of Pentecost all the disciples were together in one place with one mind. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole place where they were sitting. And tongues as of fire appeared to them, divided, and rested on each of them, and they spoke in various tongues, as the Spirit gave them to speak.” And again: “By the Holy Spirit,” he says, “sent from heaven, whom he poured out most richly on us and on all who believe.”

Of the rise of the Church. A promise fulfilled. The prophet David says: “He makes the barren woman dwell in the house, the joyful mother of children.” And Isaiah: “Rejoice,” he says, “barren one, who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate are more than of her who has a husband.” And how she gives birth the Lord himself shows in the Gospel of Mark: “Go,” he says to the disciples, “baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Again he says: “Unless one is reborn of water and the Spirit, he will not enter the kingdom of God.” And in the Acts of the Apostles: “You will be my witnesses,” he says, “in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And Peter says: “Like newborn infants, long for the reasonable milk without guile, that by it you may grow to salvation.” And Paul testifies: “Though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” [33] Of the new Testament, the new song, the new man. A promise fulfilled. The prophet Jeremiah says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will accomplish over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new Testament, not according to the Testament that I gave their fathers.” And a little later: “This is the Testament that I will make with them: putting my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts; and each will not teach his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all will know me, from the greatest to the least of them.” And through Isaiah: “Behold, I make new things, which will now spring up.” And again: “To those who serve me a new name will be given.” This is surely understood as “Christian,” a name which has taken possession of the earth. And David says: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” Who but one blind of heart does not see these things fulfilled? The Lord confirms this in the Gospel of Matthew: “Every scribe trained in the kingdom of God,” he says, “is like a man who brings out of his treasure new things and old.” And again: “What is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And Paul testifies: “The first man,” he says, “was from the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven.” And again: “Be renewed,” he says, “in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who is created according to God.” Again: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away, and behold, new things have come.” And Maro says: “in which the iron race first ceases, and a golden race rises in the whole world.”

Of the martyrs. A promise fulfilled. Through the prophet David they say: “For your sake we are put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” And again: “You have given us like sheep to be eaten.” Again in the same place: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” He himself confirms this in the Gospel, saying: “Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.” And again: “Whoever loses his life for my sake will keep it for eternal life.” Again: “You will be handed over by brothers, kinsmen, and friends, and they will put some of you to death; and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But whoever endures to the end will be saved.” And in John: “Unless,” he says, “a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John the apostle too testifies, saying: “As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” And Paul says: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come (and he concludes), nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” To this that saying of Maro: “He shall see heroes mingled with the gods, and shall himself be seen by them.” The historian Orosius wrote that there were ten persecutions from Nero to Diocletian and Maximian, like the ten plagues of Egypt. Blessed Augustine, of venerable memory, set down very many others in his writings, which he felt and saw not far from us, and handed down to us shrines of martyrdom consecrated to be venerated, himself believing in the growth of the Church which we see fulfilled. In our own times we know a persecution was carried out among the Persians, when Arcadius, a devout and Christian prince, was emperor, who, rather than hand over the Armenians who had fled to him, waged war with the Persians. Behold a sign: before he won the victory, as the soldiers were already engaging in battle, crosses of light appeared on their garments. For this reason the victor ordered a gold coin to be made with the same sign of the cross, which is in use throughout the world, and especially in Asia, to this day.

Of the calling of the nations. A promise fulfilled. The prophet David said: “The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.” And Isaiah: “Many nations will marvel at him, and kings will shut their mouths. Those to whom it was not told of him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” Again: “They will proclaim his powers in the islands.” Again Isaiah says: “Nations that did not know you will call upon you, and peoples who did not know you will flee to you.” Again he says of the apostles: “Who are these who fly like clouds, to bring your sons from a distant land?” And again: “Behold, these come from afar; these from the north and the sea; these from the land of the Persians.” And through David it is said: “A people I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel: “Many,” he says, “will come from the east and west and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of his Father.” Peter too testifies: “You who once,” he says, “were not a people, but now are the people of God.” And Paul says: “I speak to you Gentiles: inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I may provoke my flesh to jealousy and save some of them.” And again: “Blindness has come upon part of Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and so all Israel will be saved.” “All,” it is said, “who are written in the book of life of the Lamb, who was slain from the foundation of the world.”

That kings who persecute Christ in the Church will be brought humbled to her. A promise fulfilled. In David the prophet: “All the kings of the earth will adore him; all nations will serve him.” And the prophet Isaiah: “The nations,” he says, “and kings who do not serve you will perish.” And again: “Behold,” says the Lord, “I lift up my hand to the nations, and I will raise my sign to the islands; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulders. And kings will be your foster fathers, and their princesses your singers. And they will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel, saying: “The queen of the South will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” It is greater here because to him one kingdom came, to this one all kingdoms came; as now we, who have long believed and believe, both discern and have seen these things fulfilled. And the Sibyl acknowledges, saying (in Augustine, as above): “And here kings will be set before the Lord, all together.”

That kings too have taken up the yoke of the law of Christ. A promise fulfilled. The prophet David says: “Now, kings, understand; be instructed, all who judge the earth. Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with trembling. Lay hold of discipline, lest the Lord be angry and you perish from the right way.” And again: “When the peoples gather together, and kings, to serve the Lord.” And Solomon says: “Love justice, you who judge the earth.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel, saying: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” And again: “With the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you.” The apostle James testifies to this: “Judgment without mercy,” he says, “to him who has not shown mercy. For mercy triumphs over judgment.” Paul too commands that we pray for kings and for those in high places, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life. To this Maro says: “Warned, learn justice and not to scorn the gods.”

Of the overthrow of idols and temples. A promise fulfilled. In his law the Lord says through Moses: “You shall overturn their altars, cut down their groves, and burn their carved images with fire.” And the prophet Isaiah: “All the things made by hand in Egypt will flee.” Again he says: “They will hide their gods in caves and caverns of the rocks, and not even there will they conceal them.” Jeremiah too says: “The gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from under heaven and earth.” And through Zechariah the Lord says: “I will destroy the names of the idols from the earth.” David too says: “All the gods of the nations are demons.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel of Luke, saying: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste. And if Satan too is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” Paul too testifies, saying: “We know that an idol is nothing in this world, and that there is no God but one.” And the Sibyl acknowledges (as above): “Men will cast away their idols and all their treasure.” These many things, then, which were said of Christ and done in Christ, we believe; the people before us, seeing these things, believed what we see fulfilled. For, to say something of our own times: when Constantine, a Christian emperor, reigned, the Donatist schism was refuted by his judgment, and Arius was punished by divine authority. Under the rule of Theodosius, a devout prince, who of us is allowed not to know that all the temples were closed through the counts Jovius and Gaudentius and the vain idols despoiled? When Symmachus, a man endowed with wonderful eloquence and learning, yet a pagan, having recited a panegyric in the consistory, suggested with what subtle skill he could to the prince, Christian as he knew him to be, that the altar of Victory be restored in the senate, the emperor at once drove him from his sight and ordered him that day to be put on an unfurnished carriage and to stay at the hundredth milestone. Eutropius too, the all-powerful patrician, a pagan in heart and mind, when he surreptitiously extracted from the Christian emperor Arcadius an edict insulting to the Church, that anyone who fled to it should be dragged even from the altar and suffer greater penalties, by divine judgment was himself the first to be served with his own sentence. For, incurring the said emperor’s displeasure, he fled for refuge to her whom he hated. The holy mother received her enemy in the bosom of mercy; obtaining pardon for him through the venerable bishop John, she gave the proud man life and safety, by his example warning all enemies that it is vain for them to kick against the goad. Honorius too, the younger son of Theodosius, endowed with Christian religion and devotion, gave all the temples with their adjoining grounds to the churches, and at the same time gave them power to break their idols. What was done in this promise of God under the same emperor, as far as divine grace has helped my memory, I will run through briefly from memory in two or three places. At Alexandria, in the temple of Serapis, there was this device of the demon. An iron four-horse chariot, supported by no base, fastened to the walls by no hooks, hanging in the air, presented to the eyes of mortals an astonishment to all and, as it were, a divine support. But a magnet, the stone that holds up iron attracted to it, fixed in that place in the vault, sustained that whole machine. So when a certain servant of God, inspired, understood this, as soon as he removed the magnet from the vault, that whole showpiece, falling broken and shattered, showed that what mortal man had made firm was not divine. At the city of Rome there was a certain cave in which a dragon of wonderful size, formed by mechanical art, carrying a sword in its mouth, with eyes of flashing gems, appeared fearful and terrible. To it every year consecrated virgins, adorned with flowers, were given in sacrifice in this way: as, unknowing, bringing gifts, they trod on the step of the stair from which that dragon hung by the devil’s art, the rush of the descending sword killed them, so that it shed innocent blood. A certain monk, well known for his merit to Stilicho, then patrician, overthrew it in this way. Feeling each step with his staff and hand, as soon as he touched that step and found the devil’s fraud, he passed over it, went down, cut the dragon apart, and threw it down in pieces, showing here too that those made by hand are not gods. In Africa, at Carthage, there was, they said, a temple of Caelestis, very large, surrounded by the shrines of all their gods. Its court, paved with mosaic and adorned with precious columns and walls, stretched for nearly two miles. When, closed for a long time through neglect, thorny thickets surrounding it covered it up, and the Christian people wished to claim it for the use of the true religion, the pagan people cried out that there were dragons and asps there to guard the temple. All the more were the Christians kindled with fervor, and removed everything unharmed with such ease that they consecrated the temple to their true heavenly King and Lord. For when the holy and solemn feast of Easter was being kept, and a multitude had gathered there, coming from everywhere even out of curiosity, the father of many priests and a bishop worthy to be named with memory, Aurelius, now a citizen of the heavenly homeland, set his chair there in the place of Caelestis and sat on it. I myself was present then with companions and friends; and (as the age of youth, impatient, turned about in every direction), while we curiously examined each thing for its greatness, something wonderful and incredible presented itself to our sight: a title written in large bronze letters on the front of the temple: AURELIUS PONTIFEX DEDICAVIT (“Aurelius the high priest dedicated it”). Reading it, the people marveled. Things done then by a presaging spirit, which the foreknowing order of God had closed with this sure end. And when a false prophecy was brought forward by a certain pagan, as though from this same Caelestis, that the way and the temples would again be restored to the ancient rite of sacrifices, he, he, I say, the true God, whose prophetic oracles cannot lie or deceive at all, under Constantius and Augusta Placidia, whose son, the devout and Christian Valentinian, now reigns, with the tribune Ursus pressing it on, brought all those temples down to the ground and left the field for the burial of the dead; and the Vandal hand has now overthrown even the road itself without a memory of it. I myself also know that in a certain part of the province of Mauretania ancient idols that had been hidden were brought out of caves and caverns, so that that whole city, with its clergy, was held in the sacrilege of perjury. What was done in this matter through the other provinces is known to all, and the outcomes themselves show it. That Hermes Trismegistus grieved at these things to come, and lamenting wrote among other things: “Then this land, the most holy seat of shrines and temples, will be most full of tombs and corpses.” But the Spirit of God foretold it; and the spirits of the demons too, confessing, could not keep silent, especially those who said to the Lord: “Why have you come before the time to destroy us?” Here that great crowd of gods, certain and uncertain, which Varro sets out; those chief and select gods with their king Jupiter brandishing his thunderbolts, to be feared for counsel and power (as their worshipers say), and terrible in arms: here, here they ought to have done something, if not for the world, at least for themselves, so that one Crucified should not destroy them. That they have perished, we too know, and the prophet David confirms, saying: “Their memory has perished with a noise, and the Lord remains for ever.”

That kings, the middling, and the poor will come together equally to the one table of Christ. A promise fulfilled. The prophet Isaiah says: “Then the wolf will feed together with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the ox and the lion and the lamb will eat straw together, and a little child will lead them.” And David says: “For behold, the kings of the earth were gathered and came together; they themselves, seeing, marveled.” Again he says: “Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high and looks upon the lowly? Who raises the needy from the earth and lifts the poor from the dunghill, to set him with princes, with the princes of his people?” And Solomon says: “He himself made the small and the great, and he cares equally for all.” And again: “Wisdom,” he says, “has built herself a house and set up seven columns; she has slain her victims, mixed her wine in the bowl, and prepared her table; she has sent her servants, calling and saying: Come, eat of my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed for you.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel, in that supper which the great rich man himself prepared for his son. He sent his servants, he says, that those invited should come, and they made excuses in this way. One said: “I have bought a farm; I am going to see it; have me excused.” Another said: “I have bought five yoke of oxen.” Another said: “I have married a wife.” In these three excuses are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world; held by these, the Jews who were invited refused to come to Christ’s supper. “Go,” says the householder, “into the squares and streets, and bring in whomever you find.” From these the nations were brought in. “There is still room,” he says. “Go,” he says, “along the hedges and roads, and whomever you find, compel them to come in.” From these he brings in, compelled, the rich, kings, and certain heretics (whom he has outside his fold), he who says: “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And to those who come he says: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Who these are, the apostle Paul shows: “There is,” he says, “neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” For this chapter too, the words of the Sibyl we set down above speak of this gathering: “He will cast down the hills, raise the valleys from the depth. There will be nothing lofty or high in human affairs.” In harmony with this Maro says: “nor will the herds fear great lions.”

That when all nations have believed, the end will come. A promise fulfilled. The prophet Isaiah says: “All the islands of the nations will worship him, each from its place.” And through the prophet Malachi: “From the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be glorious among the nations, says the Lord. And a pure sacrifice will be offered to my name in every place.” Again Isaiah: “For the earth is filled with the knowledge of God, like much water covering the sea.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel of Matthew, saying: “And this Gospel will be preached as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Of the end of the world these signs were given through the prophet Haggai: “Behold, I, says the Lord, will once more shake the heaven and the earth, and I will make the world a desert, and the cities so that they are not inhabited.” And Habakkuk says: “The consummation will come upon the impious.” And again: “The fig trees,” he says, “will not give their fruit, and there will be no produce in the vines. The work of the olive will fail, and the fields will yield no food. The sheep will fail for food, and there will be no oxen in the stalls. But I,” he says, “will exult in the Lord.” The wise men of the world themselves have also attested this, as in that saying of Sallust: “Everything that has arisen must perish, and what has grown must grow old.” The new Academics too thought all things, tending toward destruction, to be uncertain. And Plato: “If he gave a beginning to the world, he gave also an end.” Hence another too says: “What is this? That in which there is something last.” These things the Lord of all things himself confirms by giving signs: “When you see all these things happen,” he says, “know that the end is near.” And John the apostle says: “The world will pass away, and its desire.” The last things to come, the half of the time that follows, will be shown with the chapters appended; so that we may close this third time, like a third day rising from the four evangelists as from the four corners of the world, with John the evangelist, the eastern ray, moving, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke placed in three parts, and in the twelve disciples as the number of hours, the evening in which the Lord suffered. So that the very day which rose from the dead, when he comes eternal in majesty, may make us live eternally with him, and grant us to praise God for ever without end.

How the angel was created who through pride became the devil. A prediction fulfilled. Through Ezekiel the Lord says of him: “You were the seal of likeness, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; you were in the paradise of your God. Every precious stone was your covering; you walked in the midst of stones of fire, perfect in your ways from the days of your creation, until iniquity was found in you.” And Isaiah: “How,” he says, “has Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel: “You,” he says to the Jews, “are from your father the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth.” He was made in the truth in which he did not stand, because he would not be subject to the Creator, whose power even in his wickedness he did not escape.

By what pride the devil fell. A prediction fulfilled. The prophet Isaiah says of him: “You said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will raise my throne; I will sit on the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High.” And in Ezekiel: “Your heart was lifted up,” he says, “in your beauty; you lost all wisdom.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel: “Now,” he says, “is the judgment of the world; now the prince of this world is cast down.” The apostle Peter too testifies in his letter to the nations: “For God,” he says, “did not spare the angels when they sinned.” Yet he spares sinning men, because man sinned with the devil seducing him, but the devil seduced himself by sinning.

Where the devil was cast down. A prediction fulfilled. The prophet Isaiah says: “But you will be sunk into the underworld, into the depth of the pit.” And a little later: “But you have been cast out of your tomb like a useless shoot.” And through Ezekiel the Lord says of him: “I have cast you to the earth; I have set you before the face of kings, that they may see you and the multitude of your iniquities. And by the iniquity of your trading you have lost your holiness.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel, saying: “I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.” For then he fell further, when Jesus allowed himself to be tempted by him, showing the wickedness of his seduction and teaching his own how they ought to resist the tempter. And the apostle Peter says: “Thrusting them down into the prisons of the darkness of the underworld, he handed them over to be kept for punishment at the judgment.” And in the Apocalypse of John it is said: “That great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; and he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him,” following his swollen pride. “Woe,” it is said, “to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, knowing that he has a short time” in the trading of his seduction. What he did by deceiving the proud and the covetous, the earlier parts of this book contain. Now let us set out in brief, that is, at the end of time, what his deceits will be, with signs, as was said, going before.